Page 3573 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 24 November 2021
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Back then, as was reported in the Canberra Times, I—and I quote:
… urged the government to reinstate the money, saying it was “inconceivable” such cuts—
such as the $15.3 million that Mick Gentleman supported—
would not hurt front-line policing.
“There’s no question these cuts will affect front-line services.
“It is inconceivable to cut an organisation by $15 million and to reduce staff, without that then impacting on police on the beat …
Mr Gentleman will say, “Yes, the budget went up.” That is because they were asked to do more. They were asked to do more that year, so they put the budget up a little. But $15 million was then robbed, so they robbed Peter to pay Paul. But when you remove the smoke and mirrors, the reality, as the Chief Police Officer of the day acknowledged, is that these cuts hurt ACT Policing. We are still paying the price today for the cuts that were made by Madam Speaker and supported by Mick Gentleman.
I will go to the reports of the day. Going back to the Canberra Times in 2013, it stated:
The government will rip more than $15 million in savings from the territory’s police force, prompting union fears …
The $15.36 million, which the government assures will not affect the … front line, will be deducted from ACT Policing’s annual budget …
It is important that we understand, as we confront the problems that are facing ACT Policing today in terms of resourcing, why that is the case. It is because this government—the minister at the time, currently Madam Speaker, and Mr Gentleman, the current minister for police, aided and abetted at all stages by Mr Rattenbury, the leader of the Greens—ripped $15.36 million from ACT Policing.
We now know from the AFPA, and when you talk to police officers, that they are struggling. The Australian Federal Police Association’s budget submission stated that “the association has been continuously drawing the government’s attention to under-resourcing—both for staff and infrastructure—for a number of years”. “For a number of years”: probably, members, going back to 2013, when $15 million was ripped out of the budget! Specifically of police numbers, an Assembly committee was told:
We have some of the fastest growing jurisdictions anywhere in Australia—and I will use Gungahlin as an example of that—yet we have the lowest police densities to any police jurisdiction in Australia.
It has been stated many times that the ACT has the lowest per capita numbers of police officers in Australia.
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